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Winter magic and the road away from home
Even with a chest infection, which subsided into another bacterial infection when I came back to the states over Christmas, even with a lot of boring texts to study and some other hectic affairs, it was wonderful to be home for almost a month. I didn't feel like writing a single blessed thing about it for some reason, but it was so nice to dress a gorgeous tree and open presents with my family, including my god daughter and her sister, the cutest kids ever. It was great to go and see tons of movies in the theater, to cuddle with the geek, to sit at the Melting Pot fondue restaurant with a really great group of women, to go to Rachael's graduation party, to help E move house (although I coughed so much I sounded like a TB patient), to geek out with E and Jen and the Geek watching Dr. Who and LOTR, to play Mahjong and Gloom with Lish and Joseph and Maggie and chill at the Boulder Cafe with their superior Bhakti Chai.
Well, all that is over now, and it all went by so fast. Can I please have it back?
Anyhow, I'm in Sweden again, since a week ago, and there have been some nice moments here too, some of them closely connected to the extraordinary amount of beautiful winter magic going on in the landscape right now.
Last week presented some truly fairy tale-like Narnia moments, let me tell you, or rather show you:
The Road to my School
Swedes are hardcore when it comes to biking, they will most certainly do it, or try to do it, no matter what climate they are living in...
The cathedral on a gorgeous clear day
The Fyris river which goes through Uppsala
The ducks were perhaps not all that happy with the cold days
One of the many runestones in the university park, powdered with snow.
The yellow house, which was built more than a 100 years ago, is called "The Scandal House", because people thought it was a scandal that it was built to be higher than the university main hall, which resides just opposite it on the picture. Later, the university solved that particular phallic complex by promptly buying the Scandal House and use it as one of their administrative buildings. Hey, if you can't top it, own it!
But as nice as the clear days were, the real magic awaited when there was a misty softness to the gray sky, every detail on every tree became exquisite..
I had to find out how the landscape outside of town would look like, so me and a friend took an 8 kilometer walk to the old mounds and around that area, and this is what awaited us on the way:
There wasn't any lion, witch or lamppost in sight, but it sure looked like Narnia
The Old Mounds kept their secrets as usual, with Old Uppsala Church peeking out behind them
The church is actually rather pretty, up close.
We ate opposite the church, at the Odinsborg Inn, which is built in the style of 19th century viking nostalgia kitsch, and the sign is boasting that they serve REAL mead and coffee. In reality, only the coffee part is true.
And then it was time to go home, have some tea and warm our cold toes.
Well, all that is over now, and it all went by so fast. Can I please have it back?
Anyhow, I'm in Sweden again, since a week ago, and there have been some nice moments here too, some of them closely connected to the extraordinary amount of beautiful winter magic going on in the landscape right now.
Last week presented some truly fairy tale-like Narnia moments, let me tell you, or rather show you:
The Road to my School
Swedes are hardcore when it comes to biking, they will most certainly do it, or try to do it, no matter what climate they are living in...
The cathedral on a gorgeous clear day
The Fyris river which goes through Uppsala
The ducks were perhaps not all that happy with the cold days
One of the many runestones in the university park, powdered with snow.
The yellow house, which was built more than a 100 years ago, is called "The Scandal House", because people thought it was a scandal that it was built to be higher than the university main hall, which resides just opposite it on the picture. Later, the university solved that particular phallic complex by promptly buying the Scandal House and use it as one of their administrative buildings. Hey, if you can't top it, own it!
But as nice as the clear days were, the real magic awaited when there was a misty softness to the gray sky, every detail on every tree became exquisite..
I had to find out how the landscape outside of town would look like, so me and a friend took an 8 kilometer walk to the old mounds and around that area, and this is what awaited us on the way:
There wasn't any lion, witch or lamppost in sight, but it sure looked like Narnia
The Old Mounds kept their secrets as usual, with Old Uppsala Church peeking out behind them
The church is actually rather pretty, up close.
We ate opposite the church, at the Odinsborg Inn, which is built in the style of 19th century viking nostalgia kitsch, and the sign is boasting that they serve REAL mead and coffee. In reality, only the coffee part is true.
And then it was time to go home, have some tea and warm our cold toes.
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and i do think the last picture has a bit of narnia to it, although with a contemporary reality twist. :) love the red against all the black and white.
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It is so beautiful where you
live(d).
I am guessing your chest is
better. I am glad. I am also
glad you were not quarantined
by the TSA.
How is the mead not real?
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(chest is much much better now than when we talked on the phone)
ha! I meant that they don't serve mead, only coffee.
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In total AWE
Re: In total AWE
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I had no idea about the superior Bahkti Chai. I must go to there immediately.
That sucks about your infection! I hope it's passing now. You were such a trouper with all the activity. Hope your semester is off to a good start!
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Yes, you should absolutely have the Bhakti Chai at the Southside Boulder cafe, go and have some for me too until I return.
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Such beauty, I question why my ancestors left, have such resentment for them.
I sure hope I make it there someday, preferably in the extreme of winter.
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(still, do come, you really should!)
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Back when you posted your fall foliage pix, I thought Uppsala reminded me a lot of the part of New England where I grew up. We have the overcast and the ice trees and the Narnia snow too (so these look beautiful *and* nostalgic) - but not so many runestones or meadhalls!
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And I like the fence across the fairy mound, down below.
Anyway.... beautiful beautiful pictures.
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The fences are there to keep people from taking too many walks on the mounds (as they used to do, up until 7-8 years ago), since they are historical sites and old viking burial grounds. But they are more than that too, there really is a lot of old old magic around that area, and people still walk up there sometimes, fence or no fence.
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how beautiful
bundle up!!
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(Although photo #2 reminded me more of the movie "Let the Right One In" / "Låt den rätte komma in".)
Cold as it may be in Sweden in the winter, though, my online sources say it's colder still here in Wisconsin.
Glad you had a good time, in spite of being so sick. I hope you're feeling better from your various chest infections.
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Wisconsin may very well have been colder this past week, because it hasn't been so brutal here, but the 2 weeks before that we had around 0 F, which was a bit brutal.
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